Neil's Journal

[dnpilky]

Just to introduce myself. My name is Neil, I am 53, from Bolton, Manchester, currently living in Thailand, however imminently due to move back to the UK. I am not completely new to forex/trading, having looked at it and dabbled, on and off over the years, although in fairness I have never been profitable. In fact I have lost quite a lot of money, mainly to scammers and various schemes of one sort or another, not all, but mainly forex related. Alas, as they say, hindsight is 20/20.

I am also very guilty of "chasing the shiny object syndrome", always on the look out for the next new thing, be it an indicator, a strategy, an EA etc etc. I have ignorantly relied on other people to make me money, I have learnt the hardest most expensive way, that doing that is a very costly mistake. All that STOPS right now!!!.

I am with immediate effect going stop looking around, I vow to study and learn the AIMS strategies, be disciplined, be accountable, attend the trade rooms, monitor and publish my trades and progress. The ultimate goal, is to develop, and become an independent, profitable trader.

[immy]

Hi

Good start Neil.

Lets start working on our personal detailed trading plan. Inside which we will incorporate our Stage 1 Trading plan. Set those targets and objectives and try our best to achieve them.

Next we take ti from there

I believe Growth is a Possible. patience, discipline and the good old HARD-WORK... the British way!!!

[dnpilky]

[img]https://charts.mql5.com/20/244/usdjpy-m ... kets-4.png
/img]
My first trade with AIMS, sorry had to post as link, don't know yet how to insert an image
AIMS box 9.6 pips wide
Entered long at top of AIMS box, set TP at 10 pips, SL set at 3 pips below AIMS box, 2 pips spread a 1 Margin
TP HIT

[immy]

get he bbcode using the image icon from the toolbar

Code: Select all

[img] Insert link here [/img] 

Code: Select all

[img]https://charts.mql5.com/20/244/usdjpy-m15-international-capital-markets-4.png[/img]

copy the image link
insert it inbetween the two brackets
https://charts.mql5.com/20/244/usdjpy-m ... kets-4.png

[dnpilky]

Thank you Immy

Update. I am currently working on my trading plan & will also be starting my first batch of T20 trades. One of my main obstacles will be the psychological aspect of trading. After a personal tragedy a few years ago I became a very emotional person and unfortunately I still am to this day. In trading I recognize I somehow need to master this, so when I am posting my trades I am going to post an Emotional Score - ES on each trade, scale 0 - 10, 0 being no emotion and 10 being very emotional. The aim here is to evaluate my emotions as I progress. I want eventually to see trades, not as losses or wins, but rather as an outcome to be expected, whether TP or SL is hit (I hope that makes sense). I am anticipating, the more trading I do with the AIMS strategies, the better my skillset will become, the lower my ES score will become. The long term goal is to become an emotionless trader. I am going to be trading a live account for my T20 trades (lowest lot size). I think it's very easy to push the button on a demo account, but a completely different ball game and mindset with a real account.

[dnpilky]

Long Entry top of AIMS box
TP 9 pips
SL 9 pips
RR 1:1
ES 10
SL HIT, but with hindsight was not a wise decision to place a trade on the Euro 20 mins before President Draghi's Speech, but got to remember the process at this stage is to learn S1 set ups, outcome is irrelevant

[immy]

Long Entry top of AIMS box
TP 9 pips
SL 9 pips
RR 1:1
ES 10
SL HIT, but with hindsight was not a wise decision to place a trade on the Euro 20 mins before President Draghi's Speech, but got to remember the process at this stage is to learn S1 set ups, outcome is irrelevant

I see a good Setup 1 short, during first hr of Frankfurt.
We don't use the Orange bars anymore. To fix them change the settings to Zero. Better just put AIMS Wave on. Learn to Spot the waves yourself first eWave will help later. Wave count don't matter anyway. You want osee a PEAK on AO, then pullback to ZL, meanwhile Gator Sleeps and purple trails gator. Nicely.

Try add as much detail into your journal as possible. Specially what did you see on h1 chart, what twas the day like. ANy news even on the day (lke you mentioned about draghi) Check forexfactory.com calendar and find out in advance red events for the day. See how those might affect the pair you're trading. instead of being scared of it, take advantage of it. also make sure you write about your mental state. things like what was going in life in general any stresses in life, they all cascade on to trading. etc etc

lastly add a question: How could I have traded it better? and What have I learned from this trade?

cheers. keep em coming

[dnpilky]

Long top of AIMS box
16 pips TP
16 pips SL
RR 1:1
ES 10

On the hour chart, the price had dropped throughout Friday but had risen yesterday Monday and was now in a sideways market with a sleeping gator. On the 15 min chart, As i analyse this trade I realise the set up is S2 because purple line is intertwined with sleeping gator and inside the AIMS box. Mentally not good at all. Been watching charts all day, tired, I think I am actively searching for a trade, rather than waiting for a trade to show me an edge.There is US news in 1 hours time (14:00 USD S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Indices (YoY) (Nov)) and in 2 hours time (15:00 USD Consumer Confidence (Jan), I think I need to exercise more patience. What could I have done to improve my edge and mentality?
Update: Manually closed trade as price hit low of AIMS box before buy stop order was triggered. I've got an awful lot to learn to gain an edge.

[dnpilky]

Thank you Sam for your input, It's very much appreciated. I will put your recommendations into action
Can I ask when you are looking at potential set ups for the day, do you focus on upcoming red alert news?